Capitol School students ring in Year of the Snake

Friday

Feb 8, 2013 at 1:53 PM

The cloudy, drizzly weather Friday provided a perfect background for Capitol School preschoolers to slither into the Year of the Snake.The preschoolers' parade was part of the school's celebration of the Chinese new year.

By Kris MitchellSpecial to the Tuscaloosa News

TUSCALOOSA | The cloudy, drizzly weather Friday provided a perfect background for Capitol School preschoolers to slither into the Year of the Snake.The preschoolers’ parade was part of the school’s celebration of the Chinese new year.Four of the oldest preschoolers performed the lion dance, a traditional Chinese dance said to ward off evil spirits. The other preschoolers carried lanterns and sung in Mandarin, a Chinese dialect. Margaret Freeman, a teacher at Capitol School, said that Friday marked just one of the many international events the school celebrates.“Teaching kids the fun parts of culture will help them appreciate the culture,” Freeman said. “We’ve celebrate Fastnacht, which is like a German Mardi Gras, and we’ve had an international food fair.”Capitol School is a private school on Sixth Street with an enrollment of 150 students, ages 4 through 18, representing more than 60 countries. Half of the 40 students in the preschool as well as some of the school’s instructor are from outside the U.S.Irene Shen is one of two senior interns from Hung Kuang University in Taiwan. The interns are teaching the preschoolers how to speak and write in Mandarin. Friday’s story, “Silk Peony, Parade Dragon” by Elizabeth Steckman, was read in honor of this new year being the Year of the Snake. Freeman said the children have Mandarin lessons twice a week and have daily songs and stories.“I think it’s impossible to be prejudiced when you’ve been around a culture all your life,” Freeman said. She explained appreciating different cultures was important to learn at a young age.The two interns will leave at the end of the school term and go back to Taiwan, but they said they hope to return to the Capitol School in the future.“I’ll miss it here,” Shen said. “Everyone is very sweet and the children are so nice.”

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